Quick Step for baby P

 I love making baby quilts for friends! There's something so happy about creating a quilt specifically for a brand new soul - choosing colors, fabrics, and design to make a special gift. Usually I'll consider any nursery themes/ideas from the parents, and sometimes I just go for whatever I think would be fun as a surprise.

This one was for the 4th baby of a close friend, so there was an added challenge of not making it the same as any of the quilts I made for the older kiddos! There wasn't much pressure to create this one either, as I waited until she had the baby before making any final decisions on fabrics. I went with a simple herringbone design which I cut with the 60 degree lines on my ruler - so easy.

I used a green texture print as the neutral/background, and then chose a variety of colors to coordinate. The angled edges on the top and bottom were really cool, so I didn't want to just cut them straight across completely. Instead I opted to leave one end angled which gives it a cool, funky look.

Simple back and forth lines in the print sections, and ribbon candy designs in the background pieces meant the quilting zipped along pretty quickly. I found the binding fabric in my stash - a warm-color zig-zag print that was prefect for the finishing off this quilt! It was sent with some goodies for the family and happily received by its new owner - baby P!

Sonata for Bee

 Okay friends, this one was a finish in 2021 that I hadn't shared here yet! To really get the story started, we go back to 2016 (!) when I took a Double Wedding Ring class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe. It was a fantastic class - Victoria is an excellent, energetic teacher and really helped all of us experiment and play with our fabric choices.

For this quilt I decided to use my stash of music themed fabrics that I had been finding over the years. So even with a wide mix of colors and styles - they all ended up blending well all together. By the end of class I had most of the top pieced, and then finished it up at home that week.

From there, it sat in the to-be-quilted pile until I finally got it basted and under the needle summer of 2021. The backing is pieced with some of the bigger leftover pieces of music fabrics to continue the theme, and it's bound with a yellow-gold Grunge.

I free motion quilted music notes- quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and treble clefs- across the quilt in a blue Aurifil thread.⁣ This was a challenge that I enjoyed figuring out to make the notes flow into and out of each other throughout the quilt.

It's called 'Sonata for Bee' and hung in an exhibit of staff-made/owned quilts at the Quilt Museum in fall of 2021! Super exciting to have it completed & exhibited!

Twinkling Stars baby quilt

So you might know by now that I love making baby quilts for friends! Choosing colors or designs to match a nursery, or to create some fun for the new baby, to the crinkles after it goes through the wash before gifting - it's always such fun to create. Something about the joy of making something special for the new baby just makes me smile.

This quilt was no different, and it went to some dear friends of mine having their 4th girl. I made the older 2 girls book pillows, and the 3rd a star quilt too, so this one definitely had a theme of stars already decided.

I upsized the squares to about 3" from the mini I made earlier in the year for the #tqs_secretcolourswap2021. It took several days to choose and cut squares from the stash, and to create a variety of HSTs and trim them, but so worth it.

All the fabric came from my stash, and you know I love that scrappy look! The low volume prints really stand out and create twinkling movement. I used some favorite hoarded prints for the backing and free motion quilted it; there are 4 bees tucked into the quilting.

It was gifted to the new baby in September, and my friend sends me photos of the quilts in use which just makes my day & I know it'll be well loved!

Contra Dance experiment

Back in the spring I was on a roll with finishing up some smaller quilts. This one however, was a brand new project start to finish! Say hi to Contra Dance.

I got a Classic Curves Ruler by Colorgirlquilts for my birthday, and wanted to play with some curved piecing. I've had the gold and maroon fabrics for years waiting to be turned into a project, so I pulled those out to start. As I cut the curves - so easy with the ruler - and started pairing them up, I added the other colors, and eventually added the pop of mint green. That spiced up the rest of the pieces and it was fun combining these blocks together.

The solid squares helped keep the design on the modern, fresh side, and it took a little bit of debating before deciding on a final layout. I quilted straight lines with my walking foot and a light mint thread color, it's finished with facing and a hanging sleeve, measuring 24.5" x 24.5", and is entirely pulled from stash fabrics!

Mini quilt swap stories - the secret color version

Back with another early 2021 finish to share here, the 'Happy Dancing HSTs' mini!

I participated in the #tqs_secretcolourquiltswap2021 hosted by @tinyquiltswaps back in the spring. This was a fun swap challenge in that we had to make a mini quilt featuring half square triangles and the favorite color our partner had posted in their mosaics. This came with a twist, all photos we posted of our progress had to be in black & white!

My partner wanted teal and I was inspired by one of the HST designs in her mosaic. So i math-ed out this design with the squares finishing at 2" and set about pulling fabric from my stash! As I also love teal - is was not too hard to pull fabric. :) 

Making & trimming all these HSTs took some time as I love the scrappy look, and it was fun to arrange and see how it would start to come together. The pop of orange added some lively movement as well against the low volume background.

For quilting, I wanted something with curves to soften the angular lines of the design. There were a lot of quilts hanging in exhibits at work finished with Baptist Fan quilting and it was a design I'd always wanted to try so I did! It required figuring out how far apart the lines in the fan needed to be, and then marking the entire quilt with the design. Thank goodness for a light box and my trusty Dritz Mark-B-Gone marking tool!

Once it was entirely marked, it was easy to free motion quilt all of the fan lines and I absolutely love how it turned out and am definitely adding this design into my pocket for use in the future. Of course there's a bee stitched it!

Well, we swapped in April and my partner really enjoyed the quilt so that's always great to see. One of the extras I sent was a coordinated mug rug.

Here's what I received in return which I also love! It fits really well with a couple other quilts on my mini wall and a great scrappy, improv HST look.

Lanterns - quilt finish

 This was another small quilt top that I pulled out and finished in Jan/Feb this year. It's an original design, which started as a drawing/doodle, that I was able to do the math for it and turn into an actual quilt top at Quilt Retreat in 2017. So it's been waiting patiently to be finished and I'm thrilled it's done!

I used a a charm pack of 'Flow' by Zen Chic and a grey dot background fabric. The hexagonal shapes reminded me of folded paper lanterns, so that's where the name comes from.

I used straight line quilting, spaced 1/4" apart (for a modern look) with grey thread in the background, and coordinating thread colors through the lanterns for an added pop!

Finished with a dark grey zigzag binding, it measures 27" x 37."

Sunfish Adrift

Doing some catch up here updating my finished quilts from the year! Starting with a mini quilt titled "Sunfish Adrift" which I finished back in January.

It's based on a photo I took one summer at the camp where I worked. It was on the river, and I spent a lot of time on the waterfront. The photo, and this quilt, capture the look of several sunfish sailboats moored just off-shore waiting for the next class to arrive.

 I dye-painted this piece in a class with Hollis Chatelain in 2019, which was a really great experience! It lingered a little bit and then early this year I knew it would be a fast finish to kick off the year. 

Free-motion quilting with Aurifil threads, and measuring 18.5" x 20," it is finished with facing, and a sleeve. Of course there's a lil bee in there too - can you spot it?